IBM says it will buy Trusteer, source says paying close to $1 billion

The IBM logo is seen outside the company's offices in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv October 24, 2011.

Reuters/Nir Elias

(Reuters) - IBM, the world's biggest technology services company, said on Thursday it has agreed to buy Trusteer, a company that helps businesses fight computer viruses and fraud.

A person familiar with the matter said IBM was paying close to $1 billion for Trusteer, making it the company's second-largest acquisition of a security company after its 2006 purchase of Internet Security Systems for about $1.3 billion.

Officials with International Business Machines Corp declined to comment on terms of the agreement to buy Trusteer, which has offices in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel.

IBM said it planned to open a cyber security software lab at Trusteer's offices in Tel Aviv, which will employ more than 200 researchers and developers. The lab will be in addition to other research and development facilities in Israel.

Trusteer competes with long-established security providers such as Symantec Corp, Intel Corp's McAfee division and EMC Corp's RSA security unit. Privately held competitors include FireEye, which has filed to go public, and Bromium.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Nicola Leske New York; Editing by Toni Reinhold)